Royal Princess Emerges From Singapore Dry Dock With the Sanctuary Collection
Princess Cruises' Royal Princess spent two weeks in a Singapore dry dock and came out with the premium Sanctuary Collection for select suites and staterooms, 20 new cabins, and reworked bars and shops before her 2026-27 Australia season.
Royal Princess is back in service after a two-week dry dock in Singapore from October 16 to 30, 2026, and she came out noticeably different. The headline change: Princess Cruises added its premium Sanctuary Collection — an upgraded tier for select suites and staterooms with inclusive amenities — to the 3,595-guest ship, built out 20 new cabins, and reshuffled several bars, shops, and the casino. The timing matters because Royal Princess is now repositioning to Australia for a Sydney-based summer season, so the first guests to experience the refreshed ship will be cruising the South Pacific, not the Caribbean.
Princess announced the enhancements in a statement, and the details were reported by Cruise Industry News on November 2, 2026. Here’s what the refit actually delivered and why it’s worth knowing before you book.
What the Sanctuary Collection adds
The Sanctuary Collection is Princess’s premium, resort-within-the-ship concept for select suites and staterooms, layered on top of the standard product. It isn’t new to the fleet — Princess first introduced it aboard Sun Princess and Star Princess — but Royal Princess is the first of five Royal-class ships getting it in the 2027 expansion, and the first of those five to put the staterooms on sale.
Sanctuary Collection guests get access to the Sanctuary Club, an adults-only top-deck retreat with its own pool. Cruise Industry News reports the dedicated Sanctuary Club space opens in spring 2027; until then, guests 16 and older can preview it in the area previously known as the Retreat Pool and The Sanctuary. The collection also includes the newly opened Sanctuary Restaurant on Deck 6, positioned next to the Concerto Dining Room.
To support the new tier, the dry dock added 20 cabins to the ship:
| New stateroom type | Count |
|---|---|
| Mini-suites | 6 |
| Oceanview | 7 |
| Interior | 2 |
| Single interior | 5 |
| Total | 20 |
The new ocean-view staterooms can be booked as part of the Sanctuary Collection, giving solo and budget-minded guests a path into the premium experience that doesn’t require a full suite. The five single interior cabins are a quiet win for solo cruisers, who are usually stuck paying a supplement on a double-occupancy room.
The bars, shops, and casino also changed
Beyond the premium tier, Princess used the yard time to rework public spaces that regulars will notice immediately:
- Deck 5: O’Malley’s Irish Pub moved into the Piazza, taking over the former Vines wine bar location.
- Deck 5: Bellini’s expanded into the old Photo Gallery space.
- Casino: The staircase between Decks 6 and 7 was removed to enlarge the gaming floor.
- Shops: The Effy jewelry boutique was refreshed, and the retail spaces moved to new partner Starboard.
Rodrigo Llaguno, Princess Cruises chief operating officer, framed the work as introducing new accommodations and refreshed spaces designed to elevate the overall guest experience aboard Royal Princess.
Why this matters for cruisers
A two-week dry dock is a meaningful chunk of revenue to give up, and lines don’t do it lightly. Rolling the Sanctuary Collection out to Royal Princess first — then to four more Royal-class ships — signals that Princess sees the all-inclusive, adults-only retreat model as a growth lever, mirroring a broader industry push toward exclusive, ship-within-a-ship enclaves.
For travelers, the practical takeaway is twofold. First, if you’ve sailed Royal Princess before, your mental map of the bars and casino is now out of date, and a few familiar venues have swapped decks or names. Second, the refit timing lines up with the ship’s move Down Under: Royal Princess began a Southeast Asia deployment in late October 2026 and is now one of three Princess ships sailing the region for the 2026-27 season, which Princess says spans 42 itineraries and 62 departures sailing from Sydney to Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific.
Practical note: If a Sanctuary Collection fare caught your eye, remember the dedicated Sanctuary Club pool deck isn’t scheduled to formally open until spring 2027 — before then you’re getting a preview of the space, not the finished product. Guests sailing the early Australia season should confirm exactly which Sanctuary amenities are live on their specific departure before paying the premium. You can keep tabs on where Royal Princess is sailing now on her live location tracker.
